You’re right. The miner’s strike was never about money. It was about the stranglehold which soviet leaning socialists had attained over the trade unions and the undemocratic influence they in turn were exerting on British politics. Ultimately, the welfare of the nation and not just the miners was at stake. The miners did only want to keep their jobs, but Scargill’s agenda was much more ambitious. He used good men to pursue it and ruined the coal industry because of a greedy, rigid and confrontational approach born of arrogance. If any of those poor old miners who had never seen more than their own county, could have seen the Berlin wall in all its infamy, they wouldn’t have thought King Arthur was such a great bloke and that socialism was such a fantastic ideology then.

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Sorry; this letter is absolute rubbish, the main reason for the rebate was the high proportion of the EU budget that is spent on the CAP (at that time 80% it is now 40%), the UK has a relatively small farming sector as a proportion of GDP hence it benefits much less than other countries. So we were paying too much, in fact we were paying more than any other member state although at the time we were the third poorest. Thatcher wanted to redress the over payment but EU being the EU, came up with the complicated rebate scheme instead.

The rebate is nothing to do with the miners and everything to do with CAP, that was why Blair agreed a reduction in the rebate on condition that the CAP was renegotiated the French promised that this would be done at the next round but then reneged on the commitment.

Sorry; this letter is absolute rubbish, the main reason for the rebate was the high proportion of the EU budget that is spent on the CAP (at that time 80% it is now 40%), the UK has a relatively small farming sector as a proportion of GDP hence it benefits much less than other countries. So we were paying too much, in fact we were paying more than any other member state although at the time we were the third poorest. Thatcher wanted to redress the over payment but EU being the EU, came up with the complicated rebate scheme instead.

The rebate is nothing to do with the miners or how relatively wealthy we might be in relation to the other members and everything to do with CAP, that was why Blair agreed a reduction in the rebate on condition that the CAP was renegotiated the French promised that this would be done at the next round but then reneged on the commitment.

Removing the rebate without change to the CAP would put Britain in the position of
paying 14 times that of the French who are biggest contributor to the rebate. In 2005 we were paying annually £31 per head for our membership of this organisation whilst the French were paying £ 21 remove the rebate and our payment soars to £89 each.

France is one of the wealthiest countries in the EU and is as to be expected a net contributor, however if their contribution to the British rebate were removed France would then be a net recipient of EU funds

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not only did maggie ruin our mining industry, her privatisation of the steel industry, having run it down prior to this, is a direct material fact why 1600 steel workers are losing their jobs this weekend at redcar teeside.
now dont run away with the fact that i am putting all the blame for the miners strike on maggie. her partner in crime arthur scargill and the other leaders of the num are as much to blame, and the losers their members, their children and grandchildren, whose chances of employment underground were snuffed out during 1984/5. long term all of us were losers.
what cannot be argued away is the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs under the tories, and those of us with long memories will hopefully ensure a gordon brown victory of 18 seats in may.

now is not the time for spivs, novices or millionaires to run the country, hopefully therte will never be a time for them

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Charlie,

Why do we need her back? Do we need 3.5 million jobless? Do we have hospitals that need to be closed? Do any more of our public services need to be sold to foreigners? Do we need leaking roofs in our primary schools? Do the rich need more huge tax cuts?

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ALL THE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT mr Scargill did not take a ballot are wrong if you can remeber when he ran for the leadership one of his parts of his mandate was that if he was voted in he would fight the tories to keep all the pits open and on that he got a very big majorty so it was no good moaning about a pithead vote as he was voted in on those grounds. And can you remeber the miners from Nottingham who trusted Mrs Thathcer where did it get them the sack need Isay more

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